Meta

Those who cannot accept Israel, do not help Palestine

I have been clear that the actions of the current Government of Israel in Gaza are wrong, the attempts to rid Gaza of Hamas by force was always going to end up with the killing of civilians (something Hamas also knew and was prepared to accept) and likely to be counter-productive. Nothing can excuse the way Netenyahu & other political and military leaders in Israel have the fighting start & then continue when it became clear it was not working. Israel’s security cannot be built on the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian women & children and whoever claims it will be is no friend of Israel.

Having said that, those who write long, hate-filled diatribes calling Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide & mass murder are just as extreme as any from the other side defending what Israel has done. Many cannot even bring themselves to mention Israel so much is their hatred..

In 1947, Palestine was partitioned by the UN, most of the Jewish population accepted the plan the Arabs rejected it. On the day in 1948 when the British withdrew from Palestine, the surrounding Arab countries invaded the newly independent state of Israel. In the ensuing war the Arabs lost & Israel won.

Yes Israel conquered some of the areas that had been assigned to the Arab state under the partition plan & yes, hundreds of thousands on Arab refugees were expelled/encouraged to leave and many of these ended up, destitute, in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan (who annexed the area now known as the Wet Bank) and in the Gaza Strip (which was occupied by Egypt). What many of those posting against Israel don’t want to mention is that there were also refugees in the other direction, hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from/encouraged to leave the Arab countries they had lived in for generations. Many of these Jews also ended up destitute in refugee camps, this time in the new and very poor state of Israel. The difference between the Palestinian refugees & the Jewish refugees is that one group were left to rot in camps and dependant on charity from UNWRA and the other were absorbed by Israel into society, rehoused within just a few years and now are an Integral part of the country.

I am not going to justify Israel’s existence, there is no need, it does exist and all need to accept it, just as Israelis need to accept Palestine as a nation. I realise the future of Israel & Palestine are linked, that Israel cannot be secure without a free Palestine, but neither can Palestine be free without a secure Israel.

The current round in the conflict in Gaza helps no-one. Israel must stop and withdraw back to the 1949 armistice lines. Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel & infiltrating squads of militants into Israel. Only then can a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza be put in place under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority & guaranteed by the Arab League & the UN. The blockade of Gaza must be lifted, not only to allow much needed humanitarian aid in, but also to allow Gazan goods to be traded with the rest of the world. However Hamas must not be allowed to use this to re-arm or to use material for civilian reconstruction to rebuild tunnels.

There are two nations between the Jordan River & the Mediterranean Sea, both exist and are not going to disappear; both have justice on their side; both have the right to a free, secure homeland where children can grow free from the shadow of violent conflict.

Those who blindly support one side or the other help neither and only help feed the conflict and condemn the area to more bloodshed, more deaths, more grieving parents burying their children.